Liverpool FC Forum

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:08 pm wrote:

devaney » Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:23 am wrote:Cardiff Red - I think I made it very clear that I don't tar all Welsh people with the same brush in the last paragraph of my post.

Sorry mate I don't feel educated    just because Welsh have been in the English pyramid system for years doesn't really explain why they are allowed to be there in the first place and why they would want to be there?

I'm just fascinated. I'm not suggesting anything as radical as border control......... 

I think it's probably more down to the fact that the Welsh didn't take the radical step of 'opting out' of the English game, in the early years of footy teams from all over Britain played each other, in fact a Scottish team (Queens Park) appeared in 2 F.A cup finals but in the 1880's the Scottish F.A banned Scottish clubs from competing in English competitions. If the Scottish F.A hadn't have opted out you'd probably have Celtic and Rangers in the prem now. The Welsh were more phlegmatic and just went with the flow.
Btw the welsh had a huge influence on Liverpool as a City, second only to the Irish in that respect.

nice post mate, thank you

No problem CR, btw just to highlight the fact Everton's first ever F.A cup match was against Glasgow Rangers (played at Anfield).

Speaking of Anfield the districts of Anfield and Everton were welsh speaking at one time as well, believe it or not back in the day there were more welsh speakers in Liverpool than in any welsh city (there were 90 welsh churches here at one point) and the founder of Plaid Cymru was from Merseyside too. You only have to look at the street name behind Everton's 'Spion Kop' - Gwlady's Street (pronounced gladiss) - to see the welsh influence in the area.
Before the Irish arrived the welsh basically built Liverpool (including the docks) and used welsh stone, slate and bricks to do it.

Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:37 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

We played the Welsh champions TNS in the preliminary rounds of the CL the year after we won it, the problem is that the Welsh league probably a similar standard to the conference.

Boocity » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:55 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:37 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

We played the Welsh champions TNS in the preliminary rounds of the CL the year after we won it, the problem is that the Welsh league probably a similar standard to the conference.

I was at that match against TNS, think we won 5-1 and SG got a hatrick, oh those were the days 

@ ycsatbjywtbiastkamb - you have some serious knowledge buddy, kudos to you

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:37 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

I still don't get it why some play in the English leagues and the rest play in the Welsh league(s?).

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:06 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:37 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

I still don't get it why some play in the English leagues and the rest play in the Welsh league(s?).

A lot of the other small welsh teams wern't around back then when all the teams were merged

Inter Cardiff (yeh i know what a name) have changed name about 4 or 5 times since 1990, same goes for many of these teams, the football quality is very poor, worse than say Scottish league 2

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:06 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:37 pm wrote:

damjan193 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:30 pm wrote:Don't the Welsh have a league of their own? How come only Swansea and Cardiff get to play in the English leagues? Just curious, have nothing against either side. Never been even close to that island of yours

There's been others mate, Wrexham used to be a fixture in the lower leagues and John Aldridge started out at another welsh league club Newport. The problem for welsh clubs is that there aren't that many big cities in Wales, the country is mostly rural and made up of towns and villages.

I still don't get it why some play in the English leagues and the rest play in the Welsh league(s?).

The Welsh league is more of a county type league, until recently it wasn't even a national league, it only really covered the south of the country. It was really a semi pro league designed for the small town and village sides that didn't have the resources to travel all over England and Wales.
Large or medium sized Welsh clubs always played in the English leagues.
What happened was that FIFA threatened to take away Wales's vote in the executive (because the league was so small) so the Welsh F.A expanded the league to make it a national competition and recalled a few medium sized sides from the English lower leagues to pad out it out (which went down like a lead balloon with those clubs).
Those recalled teams (nicknamed the 'irate 8') were well pi$$ed off, they felt they were being used as pawns in a game to keep Wales's vote in FIFA, what didn't improve their mood was the fact that the bigger welsh clubs like Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham were allowed to stay in English leagues.
The clubs went to court over it to try and stay in English leagues and everything.
Because the Welsh F.A have voted the same way as the English F.A since the dawn of time there are suspicions in FIFA that the English F.A basically runs the Welsh F.A and uses a semi pro county league as an excuse to get an extra vote.

Thanks CR and Yakka. Now I'm beginning to feel educated.

Very interesting facts about the Welsh and Liverpool. Here's a bit more http://www.walesartsreview.org/the-welsh-of-liverpool/

Wow yakka, thanks mate nice explanation. You too CR.